This blog is aimed mainly at advanced students of English as a foreign / second language, although it will hopefully also be of some interest to teachers. I intend it to be a mishmash of lessons, exercises and the occasional opinionated rant about the English language.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

If you have a good learner's dictionary, it will tell you if a verb is transitive, intransitive or a linking verb. There are only three 'pure' linking verbs be, become and seem. But there are forty or so other verbs which are used as linking verbs as well as being transitive or intransitive. They are mainly to do with appearance, the senses and processes of change.

Explore linking verbs by doing lots of short exercises

How are linking verbs different from other verbs?

Look at these sentences: the first is transitive, the second intransitive:

John earns a lot of money. (noun phrase = the object)

John works very hard for his money. (adverb phrase)

What does John earn? - a lot of money (the object). How does he work? - Very hard (adverb). Now look at these two sentences:

John is a company director. (noun phrase = complement of the subject)

John is very rich. (adjective phrase)

In the first pair of sentences, we learnt what John did, and how he did it. In the second pair, the information after the verb relates directly to John himself. We learn not what he does or how he does it, but in both cases what he is. So there are two important things to know about linking verbs:

Linking verbs don't take an object. Any noun (phrase) or similar immediately after the verb refers back to the subject, and is known as the compliment to the subject, or the subject compliment.

Linking verbs take adjectives, not adverbs, as these too refer back to the subject, not to the verb.

Note 1 - The first point doesn't pose any problems with nouns or gerunds, as they have exactly the same form whether they are the subject or the object. Where we can have problems is when we use pronouns, as they have different subject and object forms. But more of that later.

Note 2 - The use of adjectives with the verb to be is not usually a problem for students. They get used to it very quickly, and the same thing might well happen in their native language, at any rate it does in many European languages. But with other linking verbs this is not usually the case, so this where you need to be careful.

A little terminology

Copular verbs - This is just the term used by grammarians and linguists for linking verbs. As the main linking verb is to be, this is sometimes known by linguists as the copula.

Predicate position - When adjectives are used after a linking verb like this, they are said to be in predicate position, or being used predicatively. This is because linguists divide the sentence into subject and predicate, the predicate consisting of the verb and everything that comes after it.

When an adjective comes before a noun, on the other hand, it is said to be being used attributively. Most adjectives can be used in both positions:

He bought a brand new car. (attributive) - This car is brand new. (predicative)

A very rich businessman (attributive) - He became very rich (predicative)

I know a happy man (attributive) - He seems happy (predicative)

But there are some adjectives which are only or mostly used attributively, for example elder - my elder brother - and others that are only used predicatively, like asleep - He is asleep.. But that's not really the theme of this lesson, so we won't go into any more detail about that today.

Click and Drop - Where you see this sign, mouse over for instructions

Adjective or adverb?

Exercise 1 - Use the adjectives and adverbs in the box to fill the gaps

The verb grow

Somebody or something begins to 'have a particular quality or feeling over a period of time' (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary). Notice the adjectives it collocates with.

We all grow old, you know.

He grew increasingly impatient as no bus came.

She found she was growing more and more fond of him.

I'm growing rather bored of your constant complaining!

The verb fall

When something happens to you or to something without your volition. It is only used like this with a very few words.

She fell ill while on holiday.

The room fell silent.

Shhh! Dad's fallen asleep on the sofa.

He fell victim to a phishing scam.

The company fell prey to a corporate raider.

The verb come

Used as a lnking verb in a few situations.

And her dreams all came true.

The straps holding the luggage on the car roof came loose.

In this production, all the characters really come alive.

The verb go

One of the many meanings of the verb go, is to change state or condition, sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, often in a bad or undesirable way. It is especially used about food, the weather etc. Test your vocabulary with this exercise.

As a linking or copular verb, to be doesn't take an object, but a subject complement, as we saw at the beginning. This means that in theory we should use subject(ive) pronouns after be - It was she, it is I, etc.

But most of us find that excessively formal, over-correct and even rather unnatural in informal English, especially in British English. And so we use the object forms instead, just like we do with other verbs - It was her, it's me, etc.

But you wouldn't know that to judge by some so-called (native speaker) grammar websites. There are some which give only the super-formal version as being correct, with absolutely no mention of the informal version. Others grudgingly admit the common usage, but see it as somehow inferior. But if you did use their 'correct' version in normal conversation, you would certainly get some funny looks. I sometimes wonder how these people speak to each other.

Sometimes we want to be a little more formal, but are still reluctant to use subject pronoun forms when they are not followed by a verb, so we rephrase the sentences slightly, using verbs or short answers etc.

- Who spilt the milk?

- I didn't spill it. He did.

- Who said that?

- She did, Miss.

- Hi Mum. It's Susan.

The use of pronouns is one of the most controversial topics in English, probably because they are the just about the only words in English which have cases - subjective, objective etc.

As such they are definitely worth a lesson of their own, which I hope to get around to soon.

Printer friendly post

You can make a teacher copy with answers by clicking on 'Show All'. Make sure you 'Clear All' before printing student copies. Or you can print normally and the answers will appear on a separate page (Page 12). The lesson is on Pages 1-11. I strongly recommend doing a Print Preview first. You might want to change your margins and you certainly won't want to print every page.

Click and Drop - Wherever you see this symbol ?, place the cursor over it for instructions, using your mouse.

Answers - At the bottom of the post you will find a row of answer buttons. Click on the appropriate button and return to the exercise.

Print friendly - Each post is designed to be printable. Exercises usually appear on separate pages, or grouped together on a page. You can make a teacher copy with answers by clicking on 'Show All', then printing. Make sure you 'Clear All' before printing student copies. I strongly recommend doing a Print Preview first. You might want to change your margins and you certainly won't want to print every page.

Update - On newer posts, many of the exercises are individually printable. Just click on the print button, and they will appear in a new, easily printable page.

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Hi. I'm a common-or-garden TEFL teacher living and working in Poland. My background is British, Scottish to be precise.
I am definitely neither a linguist nor an expert on grammar, simply someone with a healthy interest in my language and its development.